This invention relates to stringed musical instruments, and deals more particularly with a bridge for such an instrument which bridge may be combined with a tailpiece and/or a mute mechanism to form a single unit.
The invention is advantageously applied to an electric string bass and is, therefore, in the accompanying drawings and following description illustrated and described in such environment. However, it may be applied to a large variety of other stringed instruments and there is no intention to limit the invention to the illustrated example.
In stringed musical instruments of the type with which this invention is concerned, the strings are conventionally stretched between a bridge and a nut and along part of the distance between the bridge and the nut are underlain by a fret board against which they may be pressed in the playing of the instrument to change their respective lengths and therefore the frequency of the sounds produced. It is further known that due to different characteristics of different strings, different strings require slightly different spacings between the bridge and the nut to produce accurate intonation from the strings as the string is pressed against different frets of the fret board. Not only do the several strings of the set of strings installed on an instrument commonly require different bridge to nut spacings but any given string of such set also commonly requires different bridge to nut spacings depending on its brand. Therefore, a general object of this invention is to provide a bridge wherein the bridge to nut spacing of the individual strings may be readily adjusted. In further keeping with this object, a more specific object is to provide a bridge wherein individually adjustable support means are provided for each string and wherein a visible indication is provided for each such support member to indicate its particular state of adjustment whereby the positions of the string support members may be visually set to agree with a pre-established setting scheme associated with the brand of strings used on the instrument, thereby eliminating the need for a performer to adjust the string intonation by ear or at least giving initial coarse adjustments from which finer adjustments can then be made by ear.
A further object of this invention is to provide a bridge of the foregoing character wherein the string support members are supported on their base so as to provide a fixed string curvature matching the curvature of the fret board and including an adjustment means whereby the base of the bridge may be raised and lowered and/or tilted relative to the body of the instrument to bring the strings into proper height adjustment relative to the fret board without changing the curvature established by the string support members.
Another object of the invention is to provide a bridge such as aforesaid whose base also provides a tailpiece for anchoring the adjacent ends of the strings to the base and which tailpiece is designed to permit quick loading and unloading of the strings to facilitate their installation and removal from the instrument.
A still further object of this invention is to provide a bridge of the foregoing character whose base also serves to provide a housing for a mute located slightly forwardly of the string supporting members of the bridge and movable into and out of engagement with the strings and which mute therefore moves with the base as the base is adjusted so as to retain the same relationship with said strings despite adjustment of said base relative to said body.
A further object of the invention is to provide an electrical output for each string by providing a piezoelectric element in each string supporting member to produce an electrical output signal analogous to the vibration of the string supported thereby. In connection with this object, a more detailed object of the invention is to provide the bridge base with a recess providing a covered housing for a plurality of volume controls each associated with a respective one of the piezoelectric elements.
A still more specific object of the invention is to provide a bridge for a stringed musical instrument which bridge is combined with a tailpiece and a mute to provide a single bridge, tailpiece and mute unit adapted for attachment to an instrument body.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description and from the drawings forming a part thereof.